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Sturgeon

Sturgeon prepared with egg, breadcrumbs, parsley, pepper, salt, and served with a sauce of butter, anchovy, soy, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Sturgeon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Cut the sturgeon into 1-inch thick slices.

  2. Rub egg over the slices.

  3. Sprinkle the slices with bread crumbs, parsley, pepper, and salt.

  4. Fold the slices in paper.

Make the sauce

  1. Mix butter, anchovy, and soy for the sauce.

  2. Melt butter with flour in a stewpan.

  3. Add cloves, herbs, onions, pepper, salt, water, and vinegar.

  4. Stir until boiling.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil gently.

  2. Tie a piece of sturgeon on a spit.

  3. Baste constantly with butter.

  4. Butter a paper.

  5. Tie it around the fish.

  6. Roast without letting the spit run through.

  7. Steep the fish in it for 1–2 hours.

  8. Serve with brown gravy, anchovy, a squeeze of Seville orange or lemon, and boiled sherry.

  9. Serve with sorrel and anchovy sauce.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sturgeon + anchovytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sturgeon
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked as a firm, meaty fish.
Egg
Binds the bread crumb coating so it adheres to the fish slices.
Bread crumbs
Form a coating that crisps and browns during cooking.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the surface brown while basting.
Anchovy
Adds a salty, savoury depth to the sauce.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma to the steeping liquid.

The step that matters

Steep the fish in the sauce for 1–2 hours. Steeping lets the flavours of the cloves, herbs, onion, and vinegar penetrate the fish. Keeping the liquid at a gentle simmer before steeping helps the flavour infuse without breaking up the flesh.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sturgeon, egg, bread, pepper, butter, anchovy, sauce):

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Nutmegfits less well
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sturgeon, egg, bread, pepper, butter, anchovy, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

More sturgeon recipes

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